A Chance to Save the World
by ShurtugalSkulblaka
Summary: Genevieve finds herself with extraordinary powers after a mysterious childhood illness, but all these powers seem to do is destroy. She tries to control these powers until one day she meets two unfamiliar men: Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr. They tell her they need her to help save the world from nuclear war, but can her powers help or just hurt? Whose side will she choose?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Well, here's my stab at an X-Men: First Class fanfiction, this starts a little before the events of First Class and continues through the movie and after the movie a bit if everything goes as planned :) enjoy, promise I won't wait too long to get Charles, Erik, and co. into this fic**

**A Chance to Change the World**

**Chapter One: Different**

This was it, the final stretch, somehow I knew this is what people felt like before they died. I lay in the small bed in my dark room thinking death would be preferable to the pain I was having to endure. Every sound seemed to be amplified ten-fold to where every voice, every creak of the floorboards was a shrill cry. My head itself felt as if it were about to explode from all the throbbing, which had only intensified every day for the last week. The fact that my six-month-old, baby sister was roomed next to me wailing like a banshee only made things that much worse. My parents had tried everything, every aspirin, every painkiller, that was legally allowed to be used on me, eventually some that weren't, but my headache just would not subside. It had started a month ago as only small headaches every once in a while, but in the just in the last week had escalated into one massive, persistent migraine. My parents had taken me to every doctor in the state of Ohio, sparing no expense on trying to figure out what was wrong, though none of them had a clue to the identity of my ailment. I had gone through countless doctor's appointments, numerous MRI and CT scans, and many painful blood-drawings, all yielding no definitive results.

Another week went by before I started to even notice the pain receding ever so slightly. At first I only noticed something was different when I looked in the mirror in the bathroom and saw the black centers of my gray-blue irises becoming less like pin-points and starting to become larger. The next thing that changed was the breaking of the fever that had accompanied my headache for the past week, the doctors had said the only thing saving me was the fever not being too high. Finally, after almost a month in agony did my headache start to slowly fade in the middle of the week. The day after my headache stopped I was able to get up from my bed, which I had been strictly confined to for the past couple weeks, and move through the house. I sat at the dining room table with my parents eating a light lunch, light because my parents feared my week body might not be able to hold down much, my baby sister sitting in a highchair next to my mother. Golden-brown waves rippled through my mother's hair as sunlight hit her when she moved into the kitchen. That same hair color was about the only physical characteristic I inherited from my mother, most of my appearance resembling my father's traits. Although I had picked up an independent, bordering rebellious, personality from my mother, I also retained the kindness and caring nature of my father. In fact, I had inherited something none of us would have ever dreamed of.

At this point I was grateful for my homeschooling in elementary school, knowing that missing almost an entire month would have been not only hard academically, but socially as well. Being the one girl with the weird accent would only add to the ridicule I would get from my peers by already being far different from any other kid my age, if the evidence from when I tried to play with neighborhood kids was enough. I preferred nature to the indoors, reading to playing games, and most of all mature company to the company of immature children. Intellectually I was superior to most other nine-year-olds I had ever met, most likely due to my homeschooling. My parents had decided, however, that I would not be homeschooled in a few years when I reached middle school, they too wanted me to be able to be around other children even if it was still a private school I was to attend. I sat at the table sipping the cool glass of apple juice given to me by my father, watching my baby sister rock restlessly back and forth in her highchair.

"Gen," my father said softly. "How are you feeling, sweetheart?"

"Better, much better, daddy," I replied with a smile.

"Maybe we can go to the park tomorrow, if you feel up to it," my mom said, walking back in.

"Oh, can we!?" I exclaimed excitedly.

"Only if you feel well enough," my father emphasized.

"We'll have lunch and then we'll go, Lucy can come too," my mother said looking over at my sister.

I smiled even wider, feeling as if I had never been sick, but it wasn't just the idea of going to the park that made me feel better, I genuinely felt as if I had never been sick. I wasn't about to tell my parents that for fear that I might not get to go to the park tomorrow, nor did I tell them that I got sick in the middle of the night.

In the darkness of my room my pain was hidden from my parents if they were to come in at any minute. The image of me clasping my hands to my temples in hope to relieve the pain, however, was not as obscure in the darkness as I would hope. I woke in the middle of the night because my headache had come back, only to see one of my books fall off the bookshelf seemingly on its own accord, but I was in so much pain I didn't know what I was seeing. I fell back asleep shortly after, forgetting the entire incident even happened. Whatever was happening to me scared me, but I did not want to worry my parents even more than I already had. Ever since I had first started to get ill, I hadn't felt the same, I felt weird, different, but I didn't know why, no one knew why. I got up the next morning with no trace that I ever had a headache that night so I decided I definitely didn't need to tell my parents about it. We ate a breakfast of pancakes and bacon with orange juice and then I went to play with Lucy in the living room. My little sister was the light of my world, I loved her with all my heart and knew we would always be close, I would _always_ look after her. I played with her while my parents talked about whatever grown ups liked to talk about when kids weren't within ear-shot. I was really the only one playing, seeing as Lucy was only six-months-old, but it kept her entertained. I feared my headaches would start up again if she started wailing like she usually did. It didn't seem like a long time until my parents finally decided it was time to go to the park, so we all packed up in the car along with a picnic lunch and left. I sat next to Lucy's car seat, watching her sleep peacefully only making me think of how restless my night had been. I wondered if Lucy would get sick like I had, if it ran in our family because I overheard my dad a few days ago telling my mom he had been sick around my age too. We got to the park ten minutes later only to find there weren't many people there today. I immediately ran off to go play on the jungle gym, leaving my parents to unpack the car.

After the car had been unloaded my father came over to push me in the swing I had migrated to. I was at a loss as to why almost no other children were here, it was a beautiful day and my dad said it wasn't supposed to rain later. I was swinging happily with my father pushing me for a long while before we decided to take a break for lunch. I gulped down my food a lot faster than my parents would have liked so I could get back to playing. My parents only laughed as I went back to running around the park not fifteen minutes later. Eventually, probably to my father's dismay, I was back at the swings, letting him push me again.

"I guess someone is feeling a lot better," he laughed as he pushed me, green eyes shining.

"I hated being stuck in my room all the time, I'm glad I got better," I said enjoying the brush of the air on my face.

"I am too, but you do know we are going to have to go back to the doctor's some time."

Even though I knew this before, somehow when my father said it aloud it shattered my hopes that I wouldn't have to go back.

"I know," I said, trying not to sound too disappointed.

"It's only so they can find out what's wrong, just because we don't want it to happen again."

The way my father said things to me always made them seem a lot less horrible than they appeared at first.

"Okay, I guess, as long as I'm not stuck in my room like that again," I said softly.

My father laughed, "You won't be."

I hopped off the swing for a second to give my dad a break, he went back over to check on something in the car. My mom had put Lucy in one of the baby swings to swing around, my mostly restless sister rocking the swing back and forth. My mom had turned away for one second, distracted by some kids yelling in the distance. At that same second the chain to the swing holding my sister snapped, throwing the swing seat sideways.

"Lucy!" I screamed, throwing my hands out in front of me, ready to run to catch her.

My sister didn't fall on the ground, instead, the second I threw out my hands she was stopped in midair by an invisible force. I noticed I was still holding my arms out in front of me and by some instinct in me I knew what I had to do. I lowered my arms and was shocked to see my sister slowly coming closer to the ground as I moved my arms down; I was _controlling_ whatever force held her. I lowered Lucy to the ground safely, instinctively knowing how to release the force, my hands shaking when I was done. I fell to my knees in the park grass, my whole body now shaking like my hands. I looked up and saw my mother looking at me, eyes wide, before she ran over to see if my sister was alright. Seconds later my father was at my side, having seen the whole thing where he was standing further behind me.

"Genevieve, what just happened?" my mother said in the most frightened tone I had ever heard her use.

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed that first chapter, there is more to come soon :) I will try to update as much as I can but no promises that it will be quick once school starts up again**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: This chapter is longer so I hope it will hold you all until I get a chance to finish chapter 3, but I doubt it ;) I am trying my hardest to finish these chapters in a quick and well-written manner. Anyway, enjoy!**

**Chapter Two: Consequences**

"Genes, DNA, mutations, evolution, that's what we will be covering today. Mutation made humans look like they do now and not like our ape cousins. Mutation has a bad connotation, doesn't it, but it really is not all bad. Many mutations are completely invisible, it merely means that some of the codons in your amino acids do not have the right patterns. These patterns determine what protein these amino acids make, and while some of the codons may have the wrong pattern, the amino acid will still make the right protein. However, if there is a massive mutation in the codon sequence the entire amino acid they code for can change and so will the protein. These proteins make up everything and without the right protein you have a mutation that might cause a physical defect."

I looked around the room when my AP Biology teacher paused during his lecture, I was the only one taking notes and among the only ones still awake. Seeing as the year was coming to an end, many of my peers simply did not care any more. My teacher had decided to go into more detail on our genetics unit since the subject interested him the most. The subject of mutations, especially, always seemed to grab my interest in this class. I was finally in my senior year of high school, almost a decade since I had last showed my strange ability in public, almost a decade since I vowed never to use it again. Only six years after I revealed what I could do my mother left my father, never returning and leaving us with him because she feared my siblings would be an abomination like me. I now had two other siblings, Michael, who was currently five, and four-year-old Miranda, I adored both as much as my sister Lucy, who never remembered what I did that day at the park. My father was raising all of us by himself, while he still worked a job. I had gotten a job as soon as I could to try and help out with all the bills, but my father's salary was luckily a good one and I was able to focus on mothering my siblings. It was hard without my mother for the first few years, it still was hard without her, though, we held our own. I always felt responsible for my mother leaving, my father trying to convince me it had been coming on like that for a few years, but I knew, I saw the way she never looked at me the same after that day, never was the same herself. I knew it was because she was scared of me, scared of what I could do, that she left. Lately I had become more angry at the whole situation rather than blaming myself for it, weren't mothers supposed to love their children no matter what? Yet, mine left because she was unable to live with a daughter who was different than other children.

Shoving my books into my locker on my way home for the weekend, I left the school and got into my car to drive home. It had been raining the past few days, a massive storm coming through the east and the roads were slick with oil and water. It took much longer to get home than usual these past weeks because of how cautious everyone was being. I myself was careful on the roads anyway, but my extra caution was well needed today as the winds had also picked up, blowing all sorts of things into the road. I was almost home when I encountered a felled tree blocking the entire single-lane roadway that went right by my house. The road was far too narrow to turn around without risking getting stuck in mud on the side of the road. Rain was now pouring out of the sky in horrid belts that moved with the force of the strong winds, pelting anything it came in contact with. I would have never gotten out of the car, in fact I knew it wasn't safe to, if the tire pressure in my left rear hadn't gone down all of a sudden. I feared that it could mean some piece of debris had punctured my tire and it would mean, even if the tree wasn't here, I wouldn't make it very far. I took my white raincoat from the backseat, throwing it around me and throwing up the hood, and jumped out of the car. The wind almost instantly knocked me down, but I was able to keep my balance by leaning up against the car. Raindrops felt like tiny bullets against my skin as the wind drove them to a force I never thought they could attain. I made my way along the side of the car, using it for support, until I reached the back. The tire looked perfectly fine to my eyes at first glance, and upon closer inspection it remained unchanged. Realizing there was a drop in temperature today, I felt like kicking myself for being so stupid, for risking my safety for something I should have figured out. My self-punishing was short lived, suddenly the wind reared up and there was a pronounced _crack_ in the distance. Before I could even process what was happening a large tree branch from one of the trees in the road-side forest was hurtling at me on the gust of wind. In an attempt to scramble back into the safety of my car I tripped, scraping my hands on the asphalt. I was even more vulnerable on the ground, but I did not have the time to get up as the branch came towards me. One last desperate attempt to save my life made me throw my arm up in front of my head, my bloodied palm outstretched towards the branch.

It was quite clear that I wasn't dead, or at least it didn't feel like I was anyway. When I finally got enough courage to open my eyes, or try to, I was surprised at what I saw. There in front of me was the tree branch suspended in air only a few feet from my outstretched palm, not close to hitting me. The branch had stopped, hovering in air, the second I had thrown my hand up, my mind opening to an ability I hadn't used in almost a decade. That ability had been all but lost to me, or so I thought not using it for so long would have done. Cold rain slid down my face as I continued to hold the branch in the air, slowly getting up from the road. Curious at the extent of what I could do with the branch, also scared of what I might do, I swept my arm sideways. The branch followed the motion of my hand, flying out to my right side and crashing against another tree. This time my hands didn't tremble and I did not get a headache, I felt fine, despite what I believed would happen if I experimented with this mysterious ability again. Even more curious as to what power I had over this ability I walked around to the front of my car, which was parked only a few feet away from the fallen tree. I closed my eyes, trying to tap into whatever part of my mind seemed to control this power, to the panicked part of me. I raised my hands up towards the tree, feeling something come over me that felt both familiar and alien at the same time. I felt a surge of energy through me, moving my hands upwards in hope of raising the tree. As with the branch, the tree followed the motion of my arm and palms, starting to slowly rise up off the roadway. I had gotten most of the tree off the ground when suddenly I felt energy draining out of me, almost making me lose the hold I had on the tree. To avoid dropping the tree back into the roadway, I hastily flung my hand out, away from the road, the tree following it. Splinters of bark and branches flew off in every direction as the tree collided with the ground. I inhaled sharply at the sudden exhaustion that had overcome me with hardly a warning, my sides burning as if I had run a mile. The storm still raged around me, my clothes completely drenched with the rain. Now that I could go somewhere, I made my way back to my car. Reaching out for the door of my car only made me remember I had scraped my hands when the motion caused them to sting. Nevertheless, I pulled open the door and slid in the seat, wiping my hands on my pants to remove the blood. Only, when I went put my hands on the steering wheel they weren't even starting to bleed again. I looked at my hands, just now seeing that the skin wasn't even broken anymore, they had healed on their own.

Driving the rest of the short distance to my house seemed like child's-play compared to the previous obstacles of the trip. I was scared, scared of what these powers would do, scared that I was using them again after all these years. I had tried to hide them, to not use them, because I didn't know what would eventually happen when I did. The fear of my siblings seeing what I could do and being afraid of me also kept me from using them. Despite all of these fears, once I was home I immediately ran to my father.

"Gen, what's wrong? What happened?" he asked me when he saw the fear in my face and the state of my clothes.

"I tried, daddy, I really did, but I had no choice," I said panicked. "I would have died."

"Alright, alright, slow down, tell me what happened," my father said calmly.

He got up from behind his desk, closing the doors to his study so that my siblings would not hear us inside. My father retrieved a towel from the bathroom connected to the study, putting it around my sopping wet shoulders. Finally able to calm down myself, I dove into my narrative of every event from the end of school to the second I walked in the front door of my home. My father listened attentively, reacting to everything I said until I finished. Contrary to what I expected, he wasn't angry with me in the slightest, he actually looked sad more than anything. Through the years my father had proven that when it came to these _abilities_ he was far more understanding than my mother had been. The day at the park had proved it, my father had made sure no one had seen me then packed us up to leave. Of course when we got home all was not well and easily packed up and put aside, my mother had exploded at my father out of fear. My father had tried his best, but he did not know anything of the powers I spontaneously possessed. I promised to never use those abilities again in an attempt to calm my mother, an attempt that lasted for about six years. Five years after my first incident my mother had Michael and a year after him, my sister Miranda. One morning we woke up and my mother was gone, all she left was a note for my father, a note I was never supposed to read but did anyway. I read the note when my father was away at work still, it was the sole reason I blamed myself and my abilities for driving away my mother. In the note my mother made it clear that, while she still loved us, she feared all of her children would turn out like me, to be so different that others could not accept us. She hoped my father would be a better parent at coping with this abnormality and being able to accept his children the way they were, unlike herself. After reading a letter which essentially blamed my abilities for my mother leaving her four children, I never wanted to use those abilities ever again and I certainly no longer trusted them to do anything but fail me.

With all my recounting done I sat quietly in the study awaiting my father's response to the events I told him of. Even understanding that my father was different from my mother, that he didn't abandon me before, I still could not fight the passing thought that the consequences would be the same as before, that I would lose my father too because I could not control these abilities. The silence between us was crushing, every second seeming to last an hour in the sun-bathed study. Finally my father stood up from behind his large, wooden desk and walked over to where I was nervously trying to dry the end of my soaked hair with the towel. He placed a comforting arm around my shoulders, having pulled up a chair next to me.

"Genevieve," he said looking into my eyes. "I understand that you're scared, but, honey, I promise that whatever happens I am here for you, I'm not going anywhere. It wouldn't make a difference to me if you were blue all over, you're my daughter, I will always love you."

He leaned over and kissed my forehead affectionately, making some of my troubles melt away. His words had driven away the slivers of fear that he would react like my mother, but the fear of not being able to control my strange ability still loomed over me.

"I don't know how to stop it, Daddy, I don't know how to stop doing it," I said, tears welling up in my eyes.

"I don't think you should," my father said, dropping his voice in an effort to calm me. "You were given this ability, you can do good with it, but not if you ignore it. If a car were to head off the nearest bridge tomorrow, do you think you would be able to stop it and save the people inside?"

I shook my head, contemplating what I would do to try to save someone with my ability.

"I'm afraid if you don't use your ability at all that it will only get harder to control, you need to learn how to control it, and that can only be done by using it. Now, I don't mean flinging every book at school across the room every time you walk in, I mean subtle use at home. You can practice here when your brother and sisters aren't around, start small and work your way up. I don't want you to have to hide who you are, you're perfect."

The way my father knew exactly what to say to make me feel better amazed me. I didn't want to tell him that I was frightened to use my ability again, so I nodded and smiled.

"Oh, Gen, another reason to get control of that ability," my father added picking up an envelope from his desk.

He handed me the envelope as he left the study. I looked down at the envelope, opened it, and pulled out a letter, my eyes immediately focusing on the words "Princeton University" on the paper. I read the letter and the whole world seemed to slow around me as I realized what was happening.

All of my hard work at school had paid off, my whole life was set before me, lined up in a perfect manner. I would start school at Princeton in the fall after I graduated from my high school, valedictorian no less. I would work on my undergraduate degree in science and then move on to a graduate degree after that. Ever since that day in the study I had taken my father's advice and started to work on controlling the ability I possessed. I started by locking myself in my room, trying to lessen the chance one of my siblings would see me as I levitated random, small objects such as my text books. Sometimes, however, the energy would just not come to me and I couldn't move even a paper clip, I didn't know why that was. Although, after a while, when the energy did come, it was far stronger than it had been before. I also started working on not letting the ability get the best of me, especially when I was in a public place. As time went by, my ability developed alongside me, it grew stronger as I finished high school and turned my focus towards college. The last day of high school I decided to push my powers even further, finding myself in a perfect setting when I was going to retrieve books from my locker and no one else was in the hall. I stood in front of my locker, concentrating on the lock's dial, trying to make it turn to my combination using only my mind. I knew if I could do this it would prove that I had worked hard enough to control my abilities for a normal life at college. I tried this time not to move my hand at all, to rely solely on the power of my mind to control my ability, but it was to no avail. The dial shakily moved closer to the nine for an agonizing two minutes before I gave up and raised my hand in front of the dial, accidentally thrusting the dial past the nine in sheer rage. I sagged against the lockers in defeat, angry at myself for letting my ability, once again, spiral out of my control. Minutes later, once students flocked the halls, I got up and turned the lock by hand, retrieving my books before leaving bitterly for home.

A few weeks later I sat among a sea of red in the middle of the local sports arena for my graduation, hoping I could contain my abilities at least until the ceremonies were through. I sat impatiently until my name was called and then walked up to the stage, receiving my diploma. I gave my speech as valedictorian, keeping it simple and to the point. Walking down from the stage brought me huge relief as the crowd erupted into a roar of cheering and clapping. An hour later the ceremony was over, that was it, I was college-bound, and suddenly I was so lost in the fervor my abilities did not concern me. That night I went to a graduation party at one of my friends' houses that was supposed to be just for a few close friends. There was already a large number of people in the two-story house, music was blasting, a disco light flashing through the house. The party had spilled onto the back lawn by the pool and into the upstairs balcony by the time I arrived. Only seconds after I arrived my friend Allison approached me, grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the front porch of the house.

"Come on," she slurred, the smell of alcohol on her breath already. "We're having so much fun!"

She then started to chuckle in a drunken stupor, dragging me to the house. Tonight I would not find myself wasted as many of my classmates were already, I knew better. Not only could my education depend on it if I was caught, I did not know how my abilities might be affected by intoxication. Nevertheless, I followed my drunken friend into _her_ overly-crowded house, pushing my way through narrow channels of space between the tightly packed teenage bodies to the living room. The once picturesque living room had been all but destroyed; the white sofa, it _had been_ white, was on its side now looking like someone had tried to paint it all colors of the rainbow, the meticulously placed pictures on the wall were now all hanging askew, and one of the glass windows had been shattered, spilling glass fragments all over the wood floor.

"Ally," I groaned in dismay, "Where the hell are your parents?"

Allison's organized, neat-freak parents would have a panic attack if even one picture was out of place, so I held the idea they would rather die than see their house in such disarray. Either her parents would die of a panic attack or they would ground their daughter for life for this mess. Somehow my question came off as funny to Allison, who, in a sober state, would be panicking herself for all the trouble she would find herself in when her parents found out.

She gave another drunken giggle before responding, "They left right after graduation...San- San Francisco."

I hardly understood her slurred response over the mixture of music from the record player and the loud voices of dozens of drunk high schoolers. I did, however, understand enough to know her parents were very far away, completely oblivious to what their daughter was doing at home.

The party only grew as the hours dragged on, grew to a point where I was considering driving home to tell my parents in fear of someone getting hurt. That same fear, the fear of someone getting seriously injured or worse, kept me at the party, almost like a supervisor to my drunken peers. I had a ominous feeling looming over me like a storm cloud, a feeling that this party would not turn out to be as harmless as it appeared. The Ally I knew would not have decided to have a party of this magnitude, she was smart, logical, and a good daughter who would never disobey her parents. She more than likely had permission to invite a few friends over after graduation for a small, celebratory party, everything this party was not. The news of a party for graduation had obviously spread like wildfire through the small town, until most of the graduating class was in attendance, and by that time Ally was too drunk to notice. I found myself outside the house by the pool, closely watching Allison in particular, making sure she didn't do anything too stupid. I hadn't allowed myself even one drink the entire night, sticking to water or soda the whole time, knowing how much rode on my decisions from now on.

Many girls were shrieking in happiness in their drunken state, sober ones still shrieked in happiness at their friends, but one scream soon rose above the others. I heard the scream and knew it was different from those shrieks of happiness, it was a scream of terror. I turned around to face the house at the same moment the second-story balcony, overburdened with too many bodies, started to separate from the house. Some of the people on it were able to make it back through the double doors into the house, but the doorway was quickly jammed and the balcony was still falling. My legs felt like rubber under me as I ran towards the danger, afraid for everyone on the balcony, who could easily be severely injured or killed in the fall. The balcony had caught for a second, slanted in the air, still far away from the house, before it started to fall once more, this time faster. That one second gave me enough time to get close to the house, immediately throwing my hands out at the balcony, trying to tap into the ability I had come to control. The entire balcony and its occupants jerked to a stop as the familiar feeling surged through me, it was still harder than anything I had ever done with my ability before. After I stopped the balcony falling, something the mostly-drunk crowd didn't question, I slowly lowered it to the ground along with the party-goers I had stopped from falling over the edge. I dropped my hands down, trying to look inconspicuous as the teens on the balcony stepped over the splintered wood with dazed looks. Never had my father's words been truer, I could save people's lives if I learned to control my ability. However, I never dreamed that one day I could save the entire world with my abilities.

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed that long chapter! :) I will try to work on and finish chapter 3 ASAP but I also have other fics to work on and work in general to do :/ **


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